It wasnâ€šÃ„Ã´t hard to recognize. When you do finally set eyes on it, the trick is to figure out a way to pull your eyes away from it again. It is so unusual, so compelling, so magical. And it turns out from the crowds lined up in front for a ticket that many have heard of it afterall. So bring your parasol or umbrella to match the weather conditions, because the wait might be long. And don't give up. It is well worth the wait. It is a colossal place, and you can spend the whole day there. So wear comfortable shoes, too.

For me, this was a welcome surprise. I had read criticisms of the aesthetic emphasis of the museum. Years ago, I worked at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (Canada) where the visitor is encouraged by the style of display to apprehend the stylistic forms of the ethnographic objects, and I had expected to find the same at Quai Branly. But at Quai Branly I did not experience any frustration from lack of information (the museum is not yet quite finished, and some of the attached texts were still on strips of paper rather than professionally applied to the glass display cases, but absent they were not). I personally am enamored of the simple ingenuity by which a harvest blade may be attached to a wooden handel, for example. That even such functional objects were presented by Quai Branly, and in a way that evoked admiration for their simple beauty, was very appealing to me. What a change from the early years of ethnographic display when objects were used to demonstrate, according to misapplied Darwinian principles, the level of development of peoples! While Quai Branly de-emphasized cultural context in the permanent exhibit, the temporary Condominas exhibit did provide this emphasis, so clearly it is not taboo within the museum.

I still live in the Dark Ages and have no digital camera. However, the Quai Branly websites have nice photographs. I have attached a page from the brochure for English-speaking visitors, but had to scan it twice because it was too large for one scan.

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